“And thus we see how the wires get crossed,” Amelia said. “Even during the drought, dragons were part of every human culture. We filled your stories and your legends, decorated your art, and fought your heroes. Even today, you make endless video games and books and movies about us. It’s dragons all the way down with you guys! And as we’ve firmly established, nothing moves magic like humans.”
“Wait,” Marci said, staring at her in wonder. “Are you saying that humans integrated your magic into oursforyou?”
Amelia nodded rapidly. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. We don’t need to wait for physical evolution to naturalize us because humans have it covered. Our magical bed has already been made, so to speak, and the only reason we’re not in it already is because we’re still lacking a connection between our fires in the physical world and this one.”
Marci’s eyes went wide. “You need a spirit.”
“Actually, we already have one,” Amelia said, pointing a curved talon at the blue sea. “Remember what I just said about dragons being a huge part of cultures all over the world? That’s alotof human attention, and when a lot of humans pay a lot of attention to something, what happens?”
“You get a Mortal Spirit,” Marci said immediately.
“Bingo,” Amelia replied, staring at the swirling waters of the Sea of Magic with hungry eyes. “Somewhere out there, beneath one of those whirlpools, there’s a giant hole created by humanity’s collective idea of ‘Dragons.’ When that hole fills up, the magic inside will become the Spirit of Dragons, or at least humanity’s idea of one. Left on its own, that wouldn’t mean anything for us real dragons except trouble. Who wants a god made out of someone else’s stereotypes meddling in your affairs? But if anactualdragon got to that hole first and exerted some good old draconic influence over the magic building up inside, you’d end up with a very different sort of spirit.”
“What kind of influence?” Marci asked nervously. “Are you going to try and become its Merlin or something?”
“No way,” Amelia scoffed. “Merlins are a strictly human gig. I’m a dragon.” She showed her sharp teeth in a predatory smile. “I’m going to conquer it.”
Everyone stared at her in horror.
“What?” Marci cried at last.
“You can’t conquer a Mortal Spirit!” Myron said at the same time. “They’re enormous, pure magic on a geologic scale. You’re the size of a cat.”
Amelia snorted. “As my brother would say, ‘Judge me by my size, do you?’ I might be little now, but I’m magic, too. Everything is on this side. That’s one of the greatest things about this plane: parts is parts. Just as mages can suck down magic from anything to use in their spellwork,Ican set fire to any magic I come in contact with. That’s why I gave Marci the dragon’s share of my fire. Since this isn’t our world, there’s no afterlife here for dragons. Once our fire’s gone, that’s it. We’re ash. But when Marci died with my fire inside her magic, she smuggled me across the border, and then she brought me here, to the only place on this plane where I could possibly make this work.” She grinned up at the spellworked sky. “The sanctuary of the Merlins.”
“Inevershould have let you in,” Shiro growled. “Dragons are always trouble.”
“But why did you want to comehere?” Marci asked. “The Sea of Magic I get, but only Merlins can manipulate the Heart of the World. What good is that to you?”
“None at all,” Amelia said. “IfI was here for the spellwork, which I’m not. I’m here for this.” She pointed up at the blue sky. “Calm, light, not getting burned alive—that’s what I’m after. Don’t forget, the Sea of Magic was every bit as dark and terrible and dangerous for me as it was for you. It’s all well and good to know there’s a hole out there in the shape of a dragon waiting for me to claim it, but if I had to bumble around in the dark looking for it, the Sea of Magic would chew me up before I got close. From up here, though, I can look for my spirit’s vessel without having to worry about getting ripped apart. That’s critical, because once I find our spirit, I’m going to need all the fire I’ve got left to claim it, because that sucker’s going to be huge. We’re talking about all of humanity’s collective idea of dragons gathered in one place. Do you know how many stories there are about us? We’re practically a genre.”
“I’m sure it’s very big,” Marci said. “But isn’t that a problem? Even if you can spread your fire, how are you going to take over something that size?”
“By getting in early,” Amelia said, her gleaming eyes more serious than Marci had ever seen. “The return of magic is a once-in-eternity opportunity, Marci. That’s why I was willing to risk everything for this. Somewhere out there is an enormous vessel for a dragon spirit, and this is the only moment in history that it will ever be half full. If I can get in there at the right moment and spread my fire through the magic before it develops a consciousness of its own, I won’t have to take over anything. I’ll just be the mind that’s already there when the new spirit wakes up. Once that happens, we’ll blend together, and its magic should naturally become mine.That’swhat I’m here for. That’s the trick. Other than the nature of the force that carves their vessels, there’s no actual difference between a lake spirit and a Mortal one. They’re both just craters in the floor of the Sea of Magic that fill up and get a personality. Dragons can’t dig out a spirit because this isn’t our world, but if I can take over the one that humans dug for us and fill it with real dragon fire, the end result should be a spirit of dragons bydragons, just like every other animal spirit on this planet. And once we’ve gotthat—”
“You’ll be a native species,” Marci finished excitedly.
“Better,” Amelia said with a grin. “We’ll be rooted here.Allof us. They all might burn individually, but every dragon’s fire sparked from the same original source: the magic of our home plane. The power that birthed us still burns in every dragon. It’s a thin connection, but if my theory is correct, that shared inheritance means that if I take over that spirit, it won’t just be me and my fire. It’ll beallof us. I’ll become the tie that binds dragonkind to the magic of this plane. We’ll no longer be stunted and limited to whatever power we can scrape together or cook up on our own. We’ll be home again, dragons ofthisplane, and it’ll all be thanks to me.” She took a deep breath, amber eyes gleaming. “I’ll be theirgod.”
Marci sighed. So that’s what this was about. “I knew all that ‘saving the species’ stuff was too altruistic for you.”
“I’d hardly be a dragon if there wasn’t something in it for me,” Amelia said unapologetically. “And it’s not as though I’m being underhanded. I’m the one who had the idea and who took the ultimate risk—it’s only fair that I should reap the rewards. Besides, it really is good for everyone. The whole world benefits when dragons become invested in our mutual long-term future, not to mention live long enough to grow out of our rampant megalomania stage.”
“Doyou grow out of that?” Myron asked sarcastically.
“We mellow with age,” Amelia replied with a sniff. “Just look at me. My play to become the god of dragons was all wrapped up in the greater good. I’m practically a saint.”
Marci had to laugh at that. “At least now we know you weren’t kidding when you said you had bigger ambitions than Heartstriker.”
“Please,” Amelia said, disgusted. “I never wanted Bethesda’s job, and I think Bob owes Julius an apology for saddling him with that dumpster fire of a clan. This iswaybetter. If I can pull this off, not only will I be the god who solved the deepest existential crisis of our species, I’ll be a spirit, which means I’ll betrulyimmortal. Even if someone does manage to kill me, I’ll just respawn in my domain. The only downside is that I could technically be bound by a mage, but I’ve never had a problem managing humans, so I’m sure it’ll be fine. Certainly worth the risk to lock in this much powerandput my entire species in my debt.” She winked at Marci. “That’s whatIcall a win-win.”
Marci rolled her eyes. Amelia looked disgustingly pleased with herself, but while she didn’t like that the dragon had kept her in the dark about her true intentions, she didn’t actually have a problem with Amelia’s plan. It felt a little questionable to take over the Spirit of Dragons before it could wake up, but considering there wouldn’t evenbea spirit of dragons without actual dragons, it could be argued that it was their spirit already. In any case, dragons needed a way to integrate, because after ten thousand years, they were definitely here to stay. The sooner they got properly merged into the native magic, the more peaceful and better off everything would be.
Ifit worked.
“Not that I doubt your brilliance, Amelia,” Marci said, “but how are you actually going to pull this off? I got you into the Heart of the World, but there’s still a lot of whirlpools out there, and even if you can find the right vessel, how are you getting inside? This place is a model, not the real thing. You can’t just dive in.”
“Actually, that’s exactly what I plan to do,” Amelia said. “Remember, this model is not to scale. Considering how big the Sea of Magic is, that’s a critical advantage. I might fly for years without finding anything outside, but in here, everything’s all nicely squished together.” She smiled at the sea. “I bet if I fly out into that wild blue yonder, I’ll find my vessel. After that, it’s just a matter of winging it.”
